DEGI Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immobilienfonds mbH has invested around €73 million in the retail gallery of the 'Le Due Colonne' shopping center in the south Italian city of Brindisi for the DEGI GLOBAL BUSINESS fund, specifically geared to the needs of institutional investors and affluent private customers.
 ))
Due Colonne, Brindisi
The seller is a consortium comprising the Italian retail developers Coopsette and Aligros. The fund is thus meanwhile represented in six European countries. The property is located, together with the adjoining Carrefour hypermarket, on Brindisi's motorway ring. Large specialist outlets in the neighbourhood additionally ensure that the area is developing into one of the most important shopping addresses in and around the Apulian metropolis. The shopping center's catchment area counts about 275,000 inhabitants.
Bärbel Schomberg, Speaker of DEGI's Management Board, sees definite development potential for modern, attractive retail facilities in Apulia: "Though purchasing power there is lower than in the north, due to lower cost of living, the amount of disposable income for consumption purposes is significantly higher than in the business centers of the country's north and in other European regions."
With a total of 60 shop units, all of them already let, the shopping center possesses a total lettable area of 12,081 m² and together with Carrefour around 2,500 outdoor parking lots. A balanced tenant mix featuring prestigious Italian and international chains like ZARA, Bata, Benetton, Bijou Brigitte or Miss Sixty attracted around 26,000 visitors on its inauguration day of March 28, 2007.
The property passes to the fund through the holding company DEGI Brindisi S.r.l. Currently, the fund owns a volume of around €236 million and property assets of around €332 million. The fund's one-year performance per April 30, 2007 was around 5.3%.
Source: Allianz
